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Text of the page (random words):
pint of pennies impressions pint of pennies impressions pint of pennies pop media notes includes musings from the worlds of art quilts history cooking writing and children s literature pages home the quilt that is me act of grace about the novel friday july 18 2014 a new beginning my publisher has official released the rights for my novel act of grace back to me and i am now in the process of independently publishing a new edition both as softcover and ebook act of grace will be back up for sale by august 15 in the mean time it is still available on kindle i am celebrating this transition because it means continued life for my novel and allows me to better serve my readers posted by karen l simpson at 5 02 pm 4 comments labels act of grace new edition pint of pennies media self publishing thursday may 22 2014 spring gathering on saturday may 24 at 2 pm i will be reading from my new novel rooms of wonder as a part of a new program called a gathering of women writers this day of author readings and conversations will be a chance for women in the ann arbor area to come together to share their work and talk about the joys and struggles of being a writers the program will run about 90 minutes refreshments and conversation will follow a gathering of women writers may 24 2014 2 pm 3222 angell hall 435 south state street ann arbor hope to see you there posted by karen l simpson at 5 36 pm 1 comment wednesday october 30 2013 how i began writing my first novel keshia thomas l shown with karen simpson r at the university of michigan in march 2013 about 12 years ago i read about a heroic incident that happened in1996 in which a young woman keshia thomas lived up to her values of hope and love during a klan rally in our hometown of ann arbor michigan with nothing but a picture and a few paragraphs i started on my writing journey i used my imagination to contemplate how much courage it would take to shield someone who is full of hate my novel act of grace developed into a paranormal speculative fiction taking on race relations in america although my novel departed from the original story i still often wondered about what happened to keshia march of this year i was able to help bring keshia to the university of michigan to speak about her experience via the understanding race project i was over the moon to finally meet her and grateful for the experience i was elated this week to see keshia and the wonderful photographer who took those historic photos thomas and mark brunner spark positive thoughts about race relations across the globe please take time to read about keshia and her wonderful act of bravery posted by karen l simpson at 12 22 pm 2 comments labels 1996 act of grace ann arbor black keshia thomas kkk picture race university of michigan white woman writing wednesday august 7 2013 quilter s dream karen simpson horse quilt a set on flickr i think one of the earliest religious disappointments as a young girls developed from my unanswered prayer for a horse in the 1960 s i was an african american girl praying for a dream that from all the evidence only white people could make come true there were no brown children like me riding horses on the television or on the movie screen there were no heroes of african descent riding fast horses to victory in any of the books i read yet i believed as only a child can believe that if i prayed wished on stars and blew on the fluffy heads of dandelions that one day god would reward my faith sometimes god says yes sometimes god says no sometime god just hands you a slightly wild idea and tells you to run with it my love of horses would lead me to a degree in animal science however what i wanted but didn t have for a long time was an artistic touchstone that connected my passion for horses to my african american heritage several years ago as i was flipping through a now defunct fiber arts magazine i came upon an advertisement for an african textiles exhibit which featured pictures of hausa horsemen in quilted armor for me the photos were an epiphany a flash of the spirit and an ancestral voice told me that i had to make myself quilted armor and that it didn t matter that i didn t know a thing about quilting i can say now that it was a call to an important artistic journey however my first quilt teacher considered my goal of a quilt for horses to be down right strange i went ahead anyway what i learned in her classes was not only the basics of quilting but also the courage to ignore criticism and follow my artistic passions my first quilt project ended up being a quilted coat for a horse and me i have now been a quilter for about 20 years and taught quilting for over 15 until last week the quilted armor i d created had never been on a horse i met up with an old friend who had a pony named dancer on a beautiful sun drenched day dancer wore my coat the amazing thing is that it fit like i d made it for him posted by karen l simpson at 9 47 am 3 comments wednesday june 5 2013 go on girl book club awards go on girl book club awards a set on flickr it was wonderful to be honored for my novel act of grace by the go on girl book club my award was a lovely quilt piece and i was so touched by the ceremony and the gift of being able to talk with so many of my readers posted by karen l simpson at 9 32 am 1 comment monday december 24 2012 my favorite culinary christmas tradition the simpson family christmas eve paella not a real paella in the strict sense of the traditional recipe once upon a time it was a traditional recipe but over the 40 years since i ve first prepared it i ve adjusted the recipe to fit the tastes of my family and the friends who have attended my family s christmas eve celebration this is not a recipe of exact proportion this a more of how you feel how many folks are coming over kind of recipe experiment with adding seafood and other vegetable your family may like this is also a great dish to usher in the new year ingredients 1 4 cup of butter 2 large green bell pepper sliced two or three bunches of green onions sliced 6 large skinless boneless chicken breast boiled then sliced small 4 cups of chicken broth 2lbs or more of polish or smoke sausage sliced 1 lb or more of ham sliced into strips 3 cups 16 oz rice 32 oz uncooked shrimp peeled and deveined more if you like more sea food 2 large green bell pepper diced preparation heat the butter in a pan and saute green pepper and onions until tender remove and set aside cook sausage until done pour off excess oil and set aside in large mixing bowl cook ham until done and mix with sausage sautee shimp until done do not overcook retain the juice boil rice in chicken broth until done pour off excess broth in a large pan add rice shrimp sausage ham bell peppers onions and mix together well season to taste with salt at this point may the joy of the season be with you all year posted by karen l simpson at 6 15 am no comments labels food tradition family thursday august 2 2012 happy birthday james baldwin happy birthday james baldwin when i was young i use to beg my mother to let me stay up late on a school night so that i could watch him on television he was the first black writer i had ever seen and he was writing about the things i cared deeply about i was mesmerized by him and soaked in everything he said when dad brought home a copy of the fire next time for a class he was taking i snuck that book out of his pile and took it to my room i know now my dad must of know i had it he saw me sneaking around and reading it he never asked for that copy back he just went out and bought a new copy himself in my novel act of grace mr baldwin s book the fire next time show up when grace s english teacher is trying to reach her restless class up front mrs watanabe began trying her best to get us to explore the finer points of james baldwin s the fire next time after twenty minutes she realized she was looking at a whole neighborhood of folks whose lights were on but who were not home so with a tiny smile that signaled her surrender she closed her notebook then for the sake of conversation she asked what she already knew so what is everybody planning to do after graduation act of grace thank you dad for never asking for your book back posted by karen l simpson at 6 41 am 2 comments older posts home subscribe to posts atom about me karen l simpson mi united states i am the author of act of grace pint of pennies media i am a quilter historian foodie and a dog and horse lover you can contact me at simpsonactofgrace at gmail dot com view my complete profile blog archive 2014 2 july 1 a new beginning may 1 2013 3 october 1 august 1 june 1 2012 13 december 1 august 1 july 1 june 2 may 2 april 1 march 1 february 3 january 1 2011 21 november 1 october 4 september 3 july 2 june 1 may 1 april 2 february 2 january 5 2010 9 december 4 october 2 august 1 april 1 january 1 2009 10 november 1 september 1 august 1 july 1 may 3 march 2 january 1 2008 15 december 2 november 2 september 2 july 2 june 1 may 4 april 1 january 1 2007 4 december 2 november 1 september 1 facebook badge karen lafreya simpson create your badge act of grace is available in softcover and ebook amazon and barnes and noble blogs with grace arthur flowers author betsy lerner black book blog black thread news about african american quilters browngirl bookspeak chasing ray book reviewer cheri paris edwards color oline diversity in ya drollerie press diverstiy resource list escape from beckyville nicole sconiers fledgling author zetta elliott jamey hatley mittenlit nathan bransford literary agent novel spaces plenary publishing my publisher poc reading challenge quilting the novel my other blog rap genius the meaning of rap lyrics reads for pleasure ringshout a place for black literature shadow and act shrinking violet promotions stephanie feldstein and her pit bulls the black bottom african american michigan the literary horse the pajama gardener the rejectionist the 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